Police Brutality Against African American Essay

“The African American community is not making this up. It’s not something that’s being politicized. It’s real”

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

Racial Disparity is denoting or diminishing a human species based on race and physical characteristics. Let’s start off by just stating the obvious, “Roughly 12% of the United States population is black. Yet in 2011, black Americans constituted 30% of persons arrested for a property offense and 38% of persons arrested for a violent offense. Black youths account for 16% of all children in America yet make up 28% of juvenile arrests.” (http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/shadow-report-to-the-united-nations-human-rights-committee-regarding-racial-disparities-in-the-united-states-criminal-justice-system) I believe the biggest disparity in the United States is incarceration rates. In 2010 according to the prison policy initiative in the United States Whites make up for 64% of the population, Hispanics 16% and blacks 13% of the United States population. When it comes to the percent of United States incarnated population Whites make up for 39%, Hispanics 19% and Blacks 40%. This study shows that Blacks are incarnated more and at a more punishable rate. Not only are black people sentenced more but they are also sentenced harsher. In an article written by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph. D and research analyst says that blacks are sentenced 14 percent longer than whites. There is bias everywhere in the criminal justice system in my opinion not only with prosecutors but with officers of the law in any way, judges, etc. Another racial disparity in the

 Racism is a big flaw in our criminal judicial system, just the fact that at least one out three African American males is expected to go to prison shows that racism plays a big part in mass incarceration. African Americans make up a majority of the prison’s population than any other race. Poor and segregated locations are more closely spectated and followed by police officers than wealthy locations because, they expect poor segregated area to be more dangerous because of the people who live there and how the environment around them looks like. Police officers should not discriminate people because, of their status and/or skin color. For example, in the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” Atticus Finch proves the innocence of Tom Robinson a

Although saying the criminal justice system is racist is a controversial statement, there is evidence and statistics that prove it to be true. Research and evidence validate the issue of racism to be undeniable. Equality and justice are out of reach with the racism that takes place in our criminal justice system and our country. Racial discrimination is prevalent amongst the African American culture in issues regarding drug use, and incarceration which creates unfair inequality for this race. I will use peer reviewed articles to verify the racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

There are more than two million people incarcerated in the U.S, whether it is in jails, prisons, or immigration detentions and the race with the highest percentage of locked up people are blacks. For many years, black men have always been at top of the list for going to prison during their lifetime. Following black men would be the Latino males, then white males, and so forth. Of course minorities are arrested more than whites. This is because they get off way easier with police officers and the law. Blacks have it the hardest where they get pulled over for any and everything. Most of the time they get killed for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Everyone is supposed to be treated fair, but police officers have their own motto for that. “Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences.” (Knafo, 2014). I feel this quote is referring to blacks because police find anything to arrest them for just to be able to send them into court and convict with anything they could possibly think of. After they find something to convict them with, they face sentences that were never supposed to be given in the first place, leading to unnecessary lawyers and money wasted trying to get them out. For the people who are sent to prison for a real conviction, it usually has to do with making, distributing, or using drugs. “We find

That unequal incarceration rates is a result of crimes committed, and not racial bias. Being more black males were in jail or prison, does not mean the criminal justice system is racist. “ They concluded that large racial differences in criminal offending; not racism, explained why more blacks were in prison proportionally more than whites and for longer terms.” They also stated “For example found that blacks frequently received more lenient punishment.” A 1994 justice department survey of felony cases from the country’s largest urban areas discovered that blacks actually had a lower chance of prosecution following a felony than whites did and that they were less likely to be found guilty at trial. Blacks were more likely to receive prison

While looking at the massive number of people incarcerated in the United States, it is easy to see that a major disparity presents itself when looking at the races of those incarcerated. The numbers are astonishing: “Though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately 32 percent of the US population, they comprised 56 percent of all incarcerated people in 2015” (“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”, n.d.). These questions arise: Is our criminal justice system discriminatory? Or, do minorities actually engage in more crime than whites? The statistics are clear:

Police brutality is an ongoing problem in the United States. Law enforcement agents are there to protect the public for they have the legal right to use physical, and even deadly, force. However, many of these officers abuse of that power. In the past year, there have been more than 900 cases of police abuse. Most of the victims have been innocent, unarmed, and/or of color. Police brutality is becoming more and more of an issue as society keeps growing. This nationwide problem could be solved in many ways, but having peaceful protests and by educating our police officers about racial differences are two good possible solutions.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative from Bureau of Justice Statistics ,a experiment recorded in the year of 2010 shows to us that the United States incarceration rates by race were approximately 380 white people ,966 latino people ,and 2,207 black people (Thomas).These numbers are not balanced at any rate.The US Bureau of Justice Statistics also did a test displaying that every male black child that is conceived in 2001 has a 32% chance of attending prison or juvenile detention center ,and compared to whites which is 6% that displays that blacks are five times more likely to go to jail than white males are (Quigley). Racism in the criminal justice system leads to internal problems within jails, external problems regarding criminal sentences and police, and mentally damaging toward the human being called out for the crime. Throughout all this information this led me to question; To what extent do races play a role in incarceration?

There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1

Police brutality against African Americans was a huge impact in Los Angeles, California in 1991, and continues to be a problematic situation in America today. On March 3, 1991, a group of white LAPD beat Rodney King. After this incident occurred a lot of negative events started to transpire. A lot of African Americans were angry and demanded justice. The relationship between the LAPD and the Los Angeles community in 1991 were horrific and still continues to be awful today. Police brutality just seems to be increasing more overtime, which means the increase in the community not trusting the police. Police brutality can be a huge disadvantage when it comes to community policing.

Most tend to justify the mass incarceration rate by arguing that there is simply more crime in America than there is other first world country. In addition the reason why the United States incarceration rate tops other countries like the United Kingdom and Germany this is partly due to the fact that the United States has a larger population than both countries, therefore the high incarceration rate is justified. Another factor that many people disagree with is mass incarceration in comparison to people of color and minorities. Due to the evidence that shows how overly represented black and brown males are in the system. Many have concluded, that due to their history and in most cases socioeconomic background, people of color and minorities just commit crimes more often than whites. Though the claims of critics are understandable they are false. In terms of drug offences, according to The Huffington Post”White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have used most kinds of illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and LSD. Yet blacks are far more likely to go to prison for drug offenses” (The Huffington Post) In fact blacks are twelve times more likely to be caught and convicted of a non violent drug crime. This statistic should lead critics to analyze and ask if the system does in fact discriminate against people of color. In regards to the claim due to a larger

Firstly, people are starting to spread incorrect facts online to make things seem racist. For instance, in the article “7 Statistics That Will Change How You View Racism,” the writer chooses to state that “Juries are prone to racist sentencing,” (Simon). However, this is simply untrue. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, “In 2008, the offending rate for blacks (24.7 offenders per 100,000) was 7 times higher than the rate for whites (3.4 offenders per 100,000),” (Bureau of Justice 11). This shows that it is physically impossible for courts to be “racist,” since statistically more African-Americans are arrested

There is crimes being committed by individuals exactly the same, but if an African American or minority commits the crime, it will be a longer, and harsher punishment. So why does this happen you might ask yourself? Well as stated in an article I found it states, “one of the most common scholarly explanations for persistent racial inequities in crime, punishment, and criminal justice is that they represent a continuation of the long history of exclusionary practices in the United States beginning with slavery; continuing through the Jim Crow South, white flight, and race riots in northern ghettos; and culminating most recently in the prison state” (Miller, 2010).